Ex-Hacienda Heights School Basketball Coach Sentenced for Sex With Middle School Student

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Ex-Hacienda Heights School Basketball Coach Sentenced for Sex With Middle School Student

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A former basketball coach at a Hacienda Heights elementary and middle school received a two-year prison sentence Friday for having sexual relations with a 14-year-old student, officials said.

Terrence Lee, 30, of La Habra Heights will also be required to register as a sex offender and stay away from the victim for 10 years, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

He pleaded no contest in May to a count of child molestation under a negotiated plea deal, prosecutors said. A second charge of committing a lewd act on a minor was dismissed.

Lee worked at Cedarlane Academy in Hacienda Height when he began having sexual relations with the girl in April 2017, the DA’s office said. The relationship continued for two months, before a relative of the victim discovered incriminating text messages on a cell phone that he had given the victim, according to prosecutors.

He was a “walk-on” coach at the school, and was not employed by the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District, which administers the campus, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported. He coached both boys and girls.

Lee initially faced a maximum sentence of three year and eight months behind bars for all the charges.